title: Legalization of Sunday alcohol sales and alcohol consumption in the United States.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the relationship between legalization of Sunday alcohol sales and alcohol consumption in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  State-level per capita consumption of beer, wine and spirits was analyzed using difference-in-differences econometric methods.
  
  
  METHODS
  United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five treatment states that repealed their laws restricting Sunday alcohol sales during 1990-2007 and 12 control states that retained their Sunday alcohol laws during the same period.
  
  
  METHODS
  Outcome measures are state-level per capita consumption of overall alcohol, beer, wine and spirits.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the states that legalized Sunday sales of alcoholic beverages, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Mexico experienced significant increases in overall alcohol consumption (P < 0.05). However, the effect of the legalization of Sunday alcohol sales in Massachusetts and Rhode Island on per capita alcohol consumption was insignificant (P = 0.964 and P = 0.367).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Three out of five states in the United States that repealed their laws restricting Sunday sale of alcoholic beverages during 1990-2007 experienced significant increases in per capita alcohol consumption. This finding implies that increased alcohol availability leads to an increase in alcohol consumption.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Barış K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Yörük
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000434:Alcoholic Beverages; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003132:Commerce / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D005260:Female; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017059:Models, Econometric; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Alcohol consumption; Sunday alcohol sales; United States; difference‐in‐differences; health policy; panel data